I'll put this photo in as a place holder
until I can get a photo of the bits that collectively make up my Superlite.
I hope that Tuco never sees the lovely purple detailing on the head tube (the forks are the same colour) - I'll never be able to mention pink bikes again. Well, yes I will, just less virtuously. There was a thread that spawned from the 'Beast is back' thread ages ago that had a lot of stuff about how to tell the different series of Superlites from each other. I'll try to find it and bump it up here.

At the time she was a new girl, Europa were sourcing their frames from Nishiki. Guess what, at that same time, so were Repco Sisters under the paint methinks. I haven't owned a 'Repco', but I sold a Nishiki to buy the Europa.

More pics of my eBay special here. Have added new black hoods, toe straps and a slightly longer and shinier seat post since taking these pics. Wouldn't mind getting some aero levers as the current ones look a bit daggy and sometimes get in the way if I'm grabbing the flats. Apart from that I'm one super happy Repco <cough>Nishiki</cough> owner!

Last edited by cray- on Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I also have a 'traveller' ( not as nice as seele's tho ) and its purple ,and was a roadside find - but now it wears 'fancy aluminiumbits and allweathersuperstickyBigWtyres ' , it rides pretty good too , might give its head around Homebush Bay tomorrow ......
but pics are in another thread ....soon my precious and I'll be ablle to attach pics .....unless Richard comes through for me again

Oh , and yes the serial number is on the rear dropout mine starts with 84 , so I'll assume that means built in 1984 , the brake which were Diacompe copies also had "Japan and 84" stamped into them . Its also made of Tange steel 1020 , this may mean nothing of course and 1020 may have been the time to knock off for morning tea..............
cheers david

The number on my rear dropout starts with GD 73 so not sure what that means. Anyway the Traveller seems to be a common model which turns up regularly on eBay, but mine was equipped with very common parts, such as poorly plated steel brake calipers which had rusted into solid blocks of rust, etc, but at least it was black so my black paint did not change its colour, short of the lack of transfers. I should have got it painted professionally though, and the mudguards taken from a Bennett could have fitted better especially around the rear wheel.

Nice job Seele looks like yours was the sister to mine ! Mine was upgraded due to finding another bike in the cleanup ! Hardest part was cleaning the rims .
I've checked the serial # , due to reading things backwards it ends in 84 ....so its actually GF705884 stamped into the lh rear dropout

xx68 wrote:Oh , and yes the serial number is on the rear dropout mine starts with 84 , so I'll assume that means built in 1984 , the brake which were Diacompe copies also had "Japan and 84" stamped into them . Its also made of Tange steel 1020 , this may mean nothing of course and 1020 may have been the time to knock off for morning tea..............cheers david

xx68 wrote:Nice job Seele looks like yours was the sister to mine ! Mine was upgraded due to finding another bike in the cleanup ! Hardest part was cleaning the rims .I've checked the serial # , due to reading things backwards it ends in 84 ....so its actually GF705884 stamped into the lh rear dropout

The number on mine ends with 71 so that might not be one that signifies the year of manufacture then.

Cleaning the rims is not really that bad, just repetitive and somewhat boring, but then if you have rusty spokes it would be something harder to tackle. Right now I am looking at a rear wheel that I found with Suntour Superbe Pro hub (with missing skewer) and Araya rim but rusty spokes: I have no idea why it was not built with stainless steel spokes as it seems like specifying re-treads to fit a new Mercedes. I'll think of something to do with that.

Speaking of skewer: I have one for a front wheel with the lever marked "SUPEROLIMPIC" (spelt as is) and don't seem to be able to find any information. Any idea?

That would be Greg Softley & he has a large number of different decals available. He will also entertain the manufacture of new ones if he feels there is a market for them. [they cost him a fair bit to set up]

He is hopefully currently making some Carbine ones for me. I had these drawn up by a professional & stored on a CD many years ago.

Speaking of Repco Decals, I am wondering if anybody can remember whether Repco ever used a metal head tube badge, or alway just used the big "R" decal on the head tube.

I would really like a proper head badge for my soon to be reborn Tri-A and I am thinking that if Repco once used them then there are probably some quitely rusting away on onld Repcos somewhere .

If not I think I will see if I can get mysefl a "Nishiki" headbadge from the States - not too much of a stretch given it was a rebadged Nishiki anyway and, in my bike's case,from memory, it was actually sold with Nishiki branding decals on the downtube and seat tube , just a Repco head tube decal. Somebody on this forum mentioned in another thread that there was a period when this happened due to some sort of contractual problem between Repco and Nishiki.

B*gger! I'm just back from a trip to the re-cycling centre and, while I looked at several Repco's I can't remember if I saw any head tube badges.
There were lots of, well 4 or 5, Apollo II's lying around.

Just an update on the Repco Superlite I purchased off Ebay a couple of weeks ago for $41...

I finally took the time to pump up the tyres and take it for a test ride.

She runs well and she soaks up all the bumps, a very comfy ride. She climbs pretty well too, I didn't feel the weight (not that she is heavy to begin with at approx 10kg).

Her front derailleur clamp (300Exage) is badly rusted but the derailleur itself works fine. As does her rear. All that needs adjustment are her brakes, which are fading on the inclines.

She has a 54cm top tube and a 80mm stem, which is still a wee bit long for me.

I've decided not to spend any more money on her but she has already earned her keep for providing me with the information on frame fit. I now know that I should be looking at the following frame sizes: 51/52/53cm.

It is unlikely that she is a rebadged Nishiki, as there is nothing on the frame to suggest so. She is more likely a taiwanese made frame, maybe a Giant. Which is fine by me because I'm intending to use her as my daily commute to the train station.

Not sure where my last post went, so I will try again. I have scored a Repco Olympic 12 that was rescued from going to the Tip. It was just a frame and all the bits were then added. The decals on the bike are 1930s retro design and there are lables indicating Chrome Moly 4130 which I believe is at the higher quality end of the spectrum. Can anyone tell me about this bike?